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FOSTORIA,
TEXASTexas
Ghost Town
Montgomery County, East Texas
Highway 105
17 Miles E
of Conroe
Population Anyone's Guess Book
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one travel about five miles west of Cleveland on Texas 105, there is a marker
pointing north to the sawmill town of Fostoria. There is nothing there now, except
a few concrete foundations covered with pine needles and an old abandoned cemetery...
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History
in a Pecan Shell
Fostoria's history begins with the 20th Century when
it was known as Clinesburg after a sawmill operator. The mill was acquired by
the Foster Lumber Company of Kansas City, and the name was changed to Fosteria
in 1903. Lumber was still the major economic engine in East Texas and between
1910 and 1920 the population was around 1,000 people - most of whom were Foster
Lumber employees. It peaked at 1,500 between 1915 and the mid 20s. The company
issued their own scrip which had to be spent in town. Up until the day it closed
in 1930, Fostoria's only business that was not controlled by the company was the
US Post Office.
The company and town prospered throughout the 30s and
40s and at one time it was one of the largest sources of Southern pine lumber
in the US. When the company shut down in 1957, former company housing was sold
to the former employees and the downtown businesses closed with the company. The
population was still 500 into the 1960s but twenty years later only a cemetery
and scattered buildings were left. |
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